Methyl and other lower alkyl-substituted polycyclic aromatic compounds are considered useful precursors for making lubricant additives and polymers for high temperature conditions. Methyl-substituted polycyclic aromatics have been prepared on a laboratory scale from expensive reagents such as butyl-lithium and dimethyl-sulfate. However, because these reagents can be considered hazardous and the costs of using them are high, this is not an acceptable large-scale synthesis route.
Large scale refinery production of alkyl-substituted aromatics by alkylating heavy aromatics-rich refinery streams has been considered as a means for upgrading low value refinery by-products such as fluid catalytically cracked (FCC) cycle oils, thermofor catalytically cracked (TCC) cycle oils, coker gas oils and aromatic extracts from lubricant manufacturing facilities which are typical relatively heavy aromatics-rich by-product streams.
Conversion of polycyclic aromatics with a lower alcohol, such as methanol over a catalyst containing a zeolite, such as ZSM-5, has been described. See, for example, D. Fraenkel et al "Shape-Selective Alkylation of Naphthalene and Methylnaphthalene with Methanol over H-ZSM-5 Zeolite Catalysts", 101 J. Catal. p. 273 (1986). However, this method tends to result in a high catalyst aging rate because it exposes the catalyst to water vapor at high temperatures which reduces the useful life of the catalyst. Different approaches along this line have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,992,606; 4,795,847; 2,527,335; 5,001,295; 4,954,663; 4,962,256; 4,181,597; and 5,053,573. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,847, a process for the preparation of 2,6-dialkyl-naphthalenes is described in which naphthalene, or 2-alkyl-naphthalene is selectively alkylated with an alkylating agent such as methanol, dimethylether or methyl bromide.
Methyl-substituted polynuclear aromatics and thiophenes have been synthesized in multi-step procedures involving adorption/desorption, extraction, reaction and purification, as described in M. Radke, "Organic Geochemistry of Aromatic Hydrocarbons", Advances in Petroleum Geochemistry, Vol. 2, p. 141 (1987) and J. Ashby et al "Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Dibenzothiophenes" Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry, Vol. 16, p. 181 (1974). However, these processes would not provide a practical large scale solution to the problem of converting cycle oils to more valuable refinery products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,573 discloses a process for converting benzene to heavier aromatics by alkylating the benzenes of a reformate with alkyl polynuclear aromatics over an alkylation/transalkylation catalyst. This process successfully converts high benzene fractions to more acceptable alkylated benzenes useful as high octane gasoline. However, this process does not describe upgrading the polycyclic aromatics to alkylated polycyclic aromatics.